Painting Procedures; Cleaning & Painting Aluminum Propellers & Gear Housings - Mercury Optimax 115 Service Manual

GENERAL INFORMATION

Painting Procedures

Cleaning & Painting Aluminum Propellers & Gear Housings
Avoid serious injury from flying debris. Avoid serious injury from airborne par-
ticles. Use eye and breathing protection with proper ventilation.
PROPELLERS
1. Sand the entire area to be painted with 3M 120 Regalite Polycut or coarse Scotch-
Brite, disc or belts.
2. Feather edges of all broken paint edges. Try not to sand through the primer.
3. Clean the surface to be painted using PPG Industries DX330 Wax and Grease Re-
mover or equivalent (Xylene or M.E.K.).
4. If bare metal has been exposed, use Quicksilver's Light Gray Primer.
5. Allow a minimum of 1 hour dry time and no more than 1 week before applying the finish
coat.
6. Apply the finish coat using Quicksilver's EDP Propeller Black.
GEAR HOUSINGS
The following procedures should be used in refinishing gear housings. This procedure will
provide the most durable paint system available in the field. The materials recommended
are of high quality and approximate marine requirements. The following procedure will
provide a repaint job that compares with a properly applied factory paint finish. It is recom-
mended that the listed materials be purchased from a local Ditzler Automotive Finish Sup-
ply Outlet. The minimum package quantity of each material shown following is sufficient
to refinish several gear housings.
Procedure:
1. Wash gear housing with a muriatic acid base cleaner to remove any type of marine
growth, and rinse with water, if necessary.
2. Wash gear housing with soap and water, then rinse.
3. Sand blistered area with 3M 180 grit sandpaper or P180 Gold Film Disc to remove
paint blisters only. Feather edge all broken paint edges.
4. Clean gear housing thoroughly with (DX-330) wax and grease remover.
5. Spot repair surfaces where bare metal is exposed with (DX-503) alodine treatment.
IMPORTANT: Do not use any type of aerosol spray paints as the paint will not prop-
erly adhere to the surface nor will the coating be sufficiently thick to resist future
paint blistering.
6. Mix epoxy chromate primer (DP-40) with equal part catalyst (DP-401) per manufac-
turers instructions, allowing proper induction period for permeation of the epoxy prim-
er and catalyst.
7. Allow a minimum of one hour drying time and no more than one week before top coat-
ing assemblies.
8. Use Ditzler Urethane DU9000 for Mercury Black, DU34334 for Mariner Grey, and
DU35466 for Force Charcoal, and DU33414M for Sea Ray White. Catalyze all four
colors with Ditzler DU5 catalyst mixed 1:1 ratio. Reduce with solvents per Ditzler label.
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90-855347R1 JANUARY 1999